Star Brigade: Ascendant (SB4)

by C. C. Ekeke

  He held up a hand to stay her, pushing up to a seated position. Jhori looked Tharyn over with unmistakable reverence that made her uncomfortable.

  Korvan’s bones! he exclaimed telepathically. Do you have any idea how powerful you are?

  Tharyn’s gaze fell. She didn’t want to talk about her potential. She was fine never being more than average in terms of her Mindspeak abilities.

  You know, Jhori pressed deeper. There was no mockery in his smile now. What you’re truly capable of. It terrifies you. He reached out to touch her arm. While we’re waiting to assure your safety, I can—”

  Tharyn recoiled from his touch and stood up. “I don’t need anything from you.”

  Jhori didn’t appear hurt by her rejection. He climbed back to his feet, his eyes glued to her. What you need is to understand your abilities beyond the basics that Lethe is teaching you. Besides, wouldn’t you rather do something productive while we wait?

  Tharydane could find no defense against that. And she couldn’t risk becoming a danger to anyone on Hollus. Not after finally finding a home…

  The Korvenite teen looked up at Jhori, who stood nearly half a foot taller. The eye contact lingered.

  “Fine.” She folded her arms in sullen resignation. “Teach me something.”

  Chapter 28

  “Not seeing much give here,” Liliana noted, pushing against the hut’s walls with both hands. Her stomach was ready to burst, yet the doctor also was feeling her strength return. Her sonic powers were still dampened, along with these Okka wisely relieving both her and Byzlar of any weaponry on their bodies. “Has to be a spot somewhere far less solid.”

  That didn’t stop her from looking for an escape. She had scoured the length of this small hut, finding little to no weak spots in its straw and mud composite. Plus, from what she could tell, the Okka had posted two guards just outside.

  All the while she searched, Byzlar sat in the middle of the hut, rock-like face smeared with bluish and green fruit flesh from their last feeding. He just stared off into space being useless.

  “Some help would be appreciated,” Lily complained, crouching to feel one side of the hut’s foundations.

  The Aesonite looked up. “Think I didn’t try that and more before you arrived? Or while you were unconscious?”

  Lily rose to her full height, unfazed. “Maybe you missed something. If we combine our heads—”

  “You didn’t hear the other prisoners’ screams, Cortes,” Byzlar decided. “Before they were eaten.”

  “I’m not giving up,” the doctor said firmly. “I’ll fight these pint-sized pendejos till Star Brigade rescues us.”

  The Aesonite shook his head, stupidly stubborn. “I signed up to PLADECO to help others. Alternate universe and time travel??” A violent shudder overtook his body. “Now we’re a species’ evening meal?”

  Lily was losing patience. “That’s the hand we’ve been dealt, Vaas.” Was she this gutless at the start of her Brigade tenure? “You can either wait to be killed or fight back with your dying breath.”

  Byzlar was about to respond angrily when another skyquake shuddered through the hut, rattling Lily’s bones so badly she dropped to her knees. She clenched her teeth, waiting for it to pass. The skyquakes didn’t hurt as much with her abilities dampened, but her brain still felt like a piñata afterward. This latest quake finally stopped several macroms later.

  “That one was bad,” Byzlar remarked.

  Lily groaned, pushing herself upright. “I need your help, Byzlar. We will get out of here, but only if we work together…” A scuffle of activity sounded outside the hut. Both she and Byzlar’s heads swiveled in that direction. The doctor’s heart raced. Were they coming to fatten them up more, or feed on them now? The anxiety was unmooring. She glanced at Byzlar. “Get up,” she mouthed. “Go to the other side.”

  Thankfully, he complied and scurried to the left side of the hut. Lily’s plan was to make it harder for the Okka to overwhelm them like before. Grab a weapon or that bag of fruit and use it defensively. Dulce Madre, she wished Captain Nwosu or Marguliese were here. Or any Brigadier. While Lily had made strides in hand-to-hand combat, it was still a shortfall for her. Either way, Byzlar was all she had right now. The scuffling stopped, leaving only ambient background noises around the Okka settlement.

  Lily raised her fists, lowering her stance to prepare for the Farooqua’s arrival. A glance at Byzlar revealed him doing the same. She smiled. He’s not giving up.

  The door swung open. Pale crimson light flooded the hut’s interior. Lily’s heart leaped into her throat as she shielded her eyes, bracing for an attack. And received none. Dropping her hand, she saw them. The Tanoeen looked carved of ice, wielding a six-foot quarterstaff. At his side was a massive Kintarian who blotted out most of the light. Lily’s heart soared. We’re safe!

  V’Korram silently approached first, tossing back his long, stringy ginger hair. For the first time in memory, he looked upon her with relief. Even more surprising to Lily, the feeling was mutual.

  The scaphe dagger in V’Korram’s hand was dripping with pink Farooqua blood. Good.

  Tyris trailed him. The joy in his beady eyes was all the greeting Lily needed. She fought back tears, knowing a full reunion had to wait.

  Byzlar pried himself off the hut wall, equally thankful.

  Without a word, Tyris removed a pulse pistol from his ankle holster and tossed it to the Aesonite. Vaas caught the weapon and cocked it expertly.

  The Tanoeen gestured toward the entrance, cobalt eyes flat and focused. He moved with slight stiffness. Lily frowned at him. I’ll ask later. She grabbed V’Korram’s arm, making him pause. “They dampened my powers,” she whispered softly enough for only him to hear.

  The Kintarian grabbed something from his belt, a syringe of some sort. “Had a feeling they might.” Without preamble, he jammed it into Lily’s arm. She gasped, the adrenaline payload a white-hot jolt scorching through her veins. If not for clinging to V’Korram, she’d have collapsed.

  “Cortes.” Byzlar moved for her.

  Tyris blocked him with an outstretched arm. “Give her a moment.”

  The veil of fatigue lifted, all of her senses amplified. Lily felt alive again, power coursing through her body. She pulled herself up and clasped her hands together like a gun. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

  When they exited the hut, Lily stepped over three Okka bodies: two with slit throats and one whose flattened face was frosted over and shattered.

  Lily looked to the heavens and gawked. Herope burned bright crimson, countered only by the cold light of what looked like Qos, again blazing like a second sun. Forks of red lightning punctured through dark grey clouds, striking faraway sites. The quartet darted quietly through a maze of straw-and-mud huts.

  “Why don’t we just transmat out?” Byzlar asked. Lily was asking herself that too.

  “Interference from the Zenith Point,” Tyris explained in a high, cold hiss as his spiky head swiveled to and fro.

  The settlement looked deserted, no sign of any Farooqua Okka. Lily might consider this lucky if she believed in luck. “What’s the plan?”

  “Get to the village borders,” V’Korram growled softly. “That’s where Fiyan and her forces are waiting.”

  “Fiyan?” Byzlar asked, surprised and joyful.

  “They are here for backup, if needed.”

  “The rest of CT-1?” Lily asked as they kept moving. “Ghuj’aega?” The doctor knew she had missed much.

  “Alive,” V’Korram grunted. “Talk about it later.”

  The ground and air shuddered again. The four soldiers had to drop to the ground so they weren’t thrown around. Lily’s bones rattled, more dizzying and ear-splitting than earlier. “Yep, my powers are definitely back,” she confirmed through gritted teeth.

  V’Korram covered his pointy ears. Tyris used his quarterstaff to stay rooted. Byzlar dug his fingers into the dark soil. The skyquake finally passed and Lily stood back up. The sight tha
t awaited made the doctor nearly leap out of her skin. “Dulce Madre!”

  V’Korram dropped to a crouch. Byzlar yelped and cocked his borrowed pulse pistol.

  The settlement’s bare pathways were suddenly packed with Okka warriors. The short and scrawny Farooqua were all slathered in the same mud covering the huts, allowing them to blend in seamlessly with their walls. All were armed with jagged spears, whips, and spoon-shaped toothed paddles.

  Lily felt terrified, until she remembered. Right, my powers. And her teammates had her back. She clasped her fingers like a gun and pointed.

  Tyris tapped his wristcom. “Fiyan. We’ve been made.” He spun his quarterstaff expertly over his head.

  The Farooqua horde advanced slowly, their green eyes fixated hungrily on the group. Herope bathed the Okka in malevolent, blood-red sunlight.

  Despite her renewed confidence, the sight chilled Lily’s heart.

  V’Korram stepped forward, his green-flecked eyes sweeping over the Farooqua in disdain.

  “Question,” he growled, a bloodied scaphe dagger in one hand and long, black claws extended on another. “Who dies first?”

  The horde of Okka answered with a collective spine-chilling roar, raising their weapons in defiance.

  Then they all charged as one.

  Chapter 29

  Taorr tried not to look down too often while piloting his borrowed shuttlecraft. The Ttaunz couldn’t bear viewing the destruction happening to his homeworld, even though he would be departing it. Lightning tore the ground up in chunks. Hordes of Farooqua converged on Ttaunz ground assault vehicles. Further off, similar TDF vehicles struggled to contain gargantuan beasts with ten spidery limbs and swollen bodies on the outskirts of city-states, unleashing blistering energy blasts. Taorr had never seen these monsters on Faroor…or in Union Space.

  “The Zenith Point,” Taorr told himself, stupefied at what was happening to his world. “It brought them here.” From where, Taorr couldn’t possibly guess. Just further confirmation that he needed to grab Mhir’ujiid, the sun to his sky, and leave Faroor. The same lover who finds you selfish and cowardly, his father’s voice nettled in his mind. Who chastises you for giving up the Magnal Throne.

  Taorr fumed, their argument still fresh. It was just a fight and not the first one they would have. “We’ll resolve this when I see her.”

  Taorr steered his vessel near the rendezvous point. Her signal pinged from this location. From his viewscreen, Taorr didn’t see Mhir’ujiid. “She could be hiding,” he told himself.

  The Ttaunz landed the shuttle and hopped out. Rolling hills of red urbrui grass stalks stretched around him for miles, while the jagged Qiidr Mountains loomed in the east.

  “Mhir’ujiid?” Taorr called, steadying himself after a minor skyquake rattled the air. Calling her again, he moved to check behind a rocky outcropping.

  “No need, elder brother!”

  Taorr stopped and looked around slowly. “Gaorr?” he breathed in disbelief. His brother was decked out in Pallanorian silk robes and jewels, carrying a Farooqua spear. Where—? Taorr’s chest tightened at what his brother’s unshrouded shuttle revealed.

  Four brawny lowborn Ttaunz, two of them restraining Mhir’ujiid. His breath caught, especially when he saw the bruises on her face.

  “Gaorr,” Taorr began slowly. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but release her.” Thankfully he wore a pulse pistol at his hip. Would he have to use it before Gaorr did something stupid?

  “Taorr, NO!” Mhir’ujiid cried. “Board your shuttle and leave! He wants to—”

  Gaorr snapped a kick at her face, buckling her knees. “Shhhhhh. You’ll ruin the surprise.”

  Taorr practically felt the kick himself. “STOP!”

  A quick command from Gaorr and his ship mechanically discharged white-hot beams. Taorr’s ship erupted, throwing him to the ground.

  Then his brother gestured at two guards. “Restrain him.”

  Two mountainous Ttaunz lumbered toward him. Taorr almost drew his pulse pistol, then remembered the influence he still wielded. “Stand down,” Taorr ordered in his most authoritative voice. “I am heir to the Magnal Throne!”

  To his shock, the huge guards seized him anyways. Taorr resisted, but the pair’s combined strength quickly overwhelmed him. They tossed his pulse pistol aside and forced him to his knees, wrenching both arms behind his back.

  “Was heir to the Magnal throne,” Gaorr corrected spitefully. “Now all these Ttaunz see is a traitor that abdicated his title for a Farooqua slut.”

  Mhir’ujiid watched in horror, helplessly struggling against her captors. “I am sorry,” she cried.

  Taorr’s heart cracked open for her. “Not your fault.” He shook his head of long hair. “Never your fault.”

  Gaorr stepped forward, blocking Taorr’s view of the Farooqua and the chaotic skies. He looked down at his brother in disgust. “Our whole life I understood our roles. You were the heir that would become Maorridius Magnus once father expired. I was the spare.”

  Gaorr paced back and forth, his handsome features becoming more and more demented as he continued. “Then, you forgot your place, rejecting the Ttaunz ways. Refusing to mingle with other highborn.” Gaorr whirled on his brother, eyes burning. “You felt you were better than your own species.”

  Taorr sighed heavily. The ways Gaorr must be in such pain. It was not secret how poorly their father, Maorridius Magnus, always treated him. And given the danger to Mhir’ujiid, Taorr chose not to fully antagonize his younger brother in this tense moment.

  Another skyquake rumbled and rattled everyone. He waited until that subsided. “I simply found another way to live, Gaorr. Unfortunately that took me on a divergent path from the one laid out for me.”

  “With that?” Gaorr gestured the Farooqua spear at Mhir’ujiid. He looked incredulous, and hateful. “You throw away what other highborn would kill for and is yours by right, for that?”

  Taorr shifted his gaze to Mhir’ujiid. He was afraid, but more for her. A knot of emotions bubbled inside him. “I love her,” he said to the Farooqua. “More than any desire to become Maorridius Magnus.”

  Mhir’ujiid’s bulging eyes watered up. He’d seen her cry once, after Star Brigade had rescued him from Ghuj’aega. Taorr eyed his baffled brother again. He felt free, physical dilemma notwithstanding. “I renounce my claim, Gaorr. The Magnal Throne is yours. Take it and let us leave in peace.”

  Gaorr’s expression hardened. “The Magnal throne is not yours to give, but mine to take.” Something in his flat tone worried Taorr. He hadn’t been worried for himself before. Now, the Ttaunz started to.

  “Don’t worry, mother and father will see how treacherous Farooqua are.” Gaorr gestured at one of the guards holding Taorr, who tossed over his brother’s pulse pistol. “You will still be unassailable in their eyes, despite your poor judgement.” He then strode over the Mhir’ujiid, who began struggling more fiercely than before.

  Taorr’s heart raced. Fear flooded every vessel of him like icy rivers. “Gaorr? Being the heir is what you want. Take it and let us leave.”

  Gaorr didn’t seem to hear him. He dropped Mhir’ujiid’s spear and hefted his older brother’s pulse pistol fluently. “She stabs you with her spear, after you shoot her.” He aimed and fired. An orange flash of light struck Mhir’ujiid in the stomach. She wailed, eyes bulging before she sagged in the arms of the Ttaunz security.

  “NOOO!” Taorr screamed her name over and over. The Farooqua didn’t respond. And his whole world splintered into white-hot nothingness. She can’t be dead. Not after everything they had endured. He looked to this Ttaunz who used to be his brother, laughing at his own actions. The pain swelled and crested, turning into fury.

  “I HATE YOU!” Taorr roared, straining against the Ttaunz holding him down.

  Gaorr cocked his head, eyes glittering. “The feeling is mutual, brother,” He aimed the pulse pistol at Mhir’ujiid’s limp body. “I’ll make sure she’s good and dead before I
gut you with her spear—”

  A spray of golden energy shredded the loamy earth in front of Taorr, then behind him. Suddenly, everyone was yelling and he was thrown to the ground again. The next thing Taorr knew, he was free and face first on churned-up earth. A panicked glance across the terrain revealed Gaorr and his cronies down for the count. A shuttlecraft, sleek and dark blue, hovered overhead.

  Without a second thought, the Ttaunz scrambled on hands and knees toward where Mhir’ujiid lay. He cradled her in his arms, unable to look down at her blackened midsection. From what he sensed, she was alive, barely. His heart fluttered in relief.

  Taorr, a voice spoke to him telepathically. We should leave before they come to. I stunned them.

  The Ttaunz looked at the shuttlecraft in unadulterated joy. “Zojje? How—”

  Later, he urged. The shuttle touched down behind the smolders of his destroyed vessel. We need to go.

  Taorr was about to move toward Mhir’ujiid to do that. Until Gaorr began stirring. Cold hatred roiled for the Ttaunz who used to be his brother. Taorr was on his feet walking toward Gaorr, who grasped for the pulse pistol just out of reach.

  “Gaorr,” Zojje’s voice boomed on his shuttlecraft’s speakers. “Stay down.”

  “Go to whatever you Kudobans call hell,” he yelled, shaking his unruly braids and scrambling for the pulse pistol.

  Taorr reached the firearm first. He felt numb whipping the pulse pistol across Gaorr’s cheek, even with that satisfying crack of bone. Taorr was numb cocking the pulse pistol, setting it to kill. He pumped two rounds into each of the four lowborn guards Gaorr had brought. He angled the pulse pistol down at Gaorr, squeezed the trigger. Till his dying day, he would forever remember how the photon blast illuminated the terror on his former brother’s chiseled features. But Taorr couldn’t stop squeezing that trigger. By the fifteenth round, what remained of Gaorr’s head and chest were splattered ruins of overcooked meat.

  Taorr stared at his handiwork, remembering Gaorr’s face before that first blast.